Evaluating Alternative Operations Strategies to Improve Travel Time ...

SHRP 2 L11: Final Report
the value of user time, would allow comparative evaluations of the effectiveness of different
strategies and their monetary benefits to the end user.
Freight will continue to require the movement of physical goods on the transportation
infrastructure, but improved information from the agency of the future will support tools such as
freight tracking and load matching to operate the transportation system efficiently and reliably and
increase the efficiency of freight movement.
The Private Sector
The future is likely to see the private sector in provide mobility services such as technology,
information, service management, and franchises to build and own infrastructure. The private
sector is motivated by profits to innovate and implement new ways of making transportation – both
freight and passenger – more efficient and more reliable. Ensuring this open, collaborative
environment where this innovation can occur will be important for improving transportation
system performance, achieving the most beneficial division of responsibilities, and arriving at the
most cost-effective, market-driven solutions.
Among the most important actions that an agency can take to prepare for the future are to follow
developments in new technology, seize opportunities quickly, develop partnerships with both
public and private sector partners, and operate in a flexible, resilient, and entrepreneurial manner.
This involves organizational and attitudinal changes. It will not be easy to find the right balance of
risk-taking and good public stewardship of resources, but several agencies operate today in a
manner that show it can be done. Some examples from Departments of Transportation include
Maryland DOTs Coordinated Highways Action Response Team (CHART) program, Florida DOTs
Rapid Incident Scene Clearance (RISC program), Georgia DOTs Towing and Recovery Incentive
Program (TRIP), Washington State DOTs quarterly performance measurement report (Gray
Notebook), and the I-95 Coalition among 16 states. Each of these initiatives has resulted in
positive impacts on travel-time reliability such as quicker clearance of stopped vehicles on the
roadway, effective information dissemination, effective work-zone traffic control, and
restructuring of ITS and TSMO programs with detailed budget and periodic performance measures
evaluation.
Funding
Funding is essential to any discussion of the transportation system of the future. Despite the
current funding crisis, the central assumption implicit in this roadmap is that transportation funding
during the next 20 years will be adequate to deploy the infrastructure to implement the concept of
operations developed here. Agency approaches to generating these transportation funds are
discussed below.
Revenue contributed to the National Highway Trust Fund is not growing as fast as the needs for it
are growing. Supplemental funds from general revenues have been appropriated on an ad hoc basis
to meet current needs. The next federal surface transportation legislation will presumably address
this funding shortage. It is unknown whether the remedy will be an increase in the federal gas tax,
legislation enabling pricing or tolling, or some other option. It appears likely that the current gas
tax will remain, agencies will expand facility tolling using tags and readers, and demonstrations of
road pricing using GPS will continue and expand, eventually providing the experience and
knowledge base to support more general use of this funding method.
A CONCEPT OF OPERATIONS Page 116